A Weekend in Hamburg: A Couchsurfing Experience

When you're in Germany with nothing to do for the weekend and you're pretty much on your own, don't spend it sitting on your Arsch surfing Facebook, looking at photos of people who seem to have lives. Looking at such photos, however, might remind you of the possibility to go out and live your own. You may, however, have to take a few risks... like travelling with strangers. You are probably more sane than me, however, and at least will choose to travel with strangers who speak English.

Anyways, around 2pm on Friday I somehow found myself squashed with four Germans in a car on the way to Hamburg. Trying my best to converse with them, they asked me where Malta is (my dear little rock!) and what I was doing in Germany. I told them that I was studying here on Erasmus and that I decided to go Couchsurfing for the weekend. I was excited to meet my Couchsurfer to see what he was like, and for some inexplicable reason (because you never know who you might meet) in my gut I knew that everything would be fine. So I was not worried at all.

Turned out that my gut was right. A tall man with the most gorgeous green eyes awaited me at the Hauptbahnhof Center. He straightaway acted the role of 'Awesome Tour Guide', taking me round the city center, where a merry and boisterous Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas market) was underway. What fascinated me was the fact that a real-life sleigh - with a real human Santa Claus - rode over the market in the air! We wrestled through the crowd until we found a stall selling hot drinks and drank some Glühwein with rum...mmm, lecker!!

The following morning we woke up, had some breakfast and then got the train to Hafen City, and walked around, starting with the San Nikolai church. We got a lift up to the top of the church and got a panoramic view of the city. Then we walked around Speicherstadt, which is a warehouse district that was used when Hamburg was part of the German 'Zollverein' tariff union, and today a UNESCO world heritage site. The buildings and canals there reminded me a bit of Amsterdam.

We visited the 'Zollmuseum' (customs museum) where I saw how people trasported goods way back, as Hamburg was for years one of the world's greatest ports. My favourite part was seeing how they smuggled stuff through, there was entire display case showing how people trasported drugs across the border, e.g. put cocaine powder in picture frames - and there was a carpet which had 11.2kg of weed woven into it!

We rode a ferry across the Elbe River, and it was so freaking cold but I still wanted to stand on the top of the boat so I could take pictures :) Later, we passed through the Landungsbrücken and went underground to see the Old Elbe tunnel where an old road underneath the river was constructed. Walking in the Hamburg Altstadt, where there was yet another Chistmas market and also a beautifully constructed town hall (as I was taking photos of it, this old German man came up to me and whispered something in my ear...I asked him if he spoke English and he said 'You can take photos of it but you cannot make one like it at home'. he then winked mysteriously and ran away). On the river nearby, there was a gigantic Christmas tree floating in the middle of the water, all lit up, its reflection glittering on the water.

Also in the same day, we packed in the Hamburg Dom, a huge, brightly-coloured funfair rivalling Brighton Pier, and also the infamous 'Reeperbahn', Hamburg's very oen Red Light District. Coming from the super-Catholic Malta (where it was actually debated whether or not to have a condom machine on campus), it was quite unusual for me to see sex shops and brothels on the street next to bakeries and dvd stores. Green Eyes took me to one called 'Bizarre Sex Shop' and its name is an understatement. There was some pretty freaky sh*t in there.

I seriously wondered why anyone would want to be gang raped by aliens, mummies, hitmen, and Santa Claus but I guess this stuff must be on sale because there's a market for it. Creepy.
Although on the bright side, there was an ErotikWeinachtsmarkt nearby, selling dildos with little Christmas hats on them.

My favourite experiences, though, were the gorgeous Japanese Garden 'Planten un Blomen', and the Planetarium; where I lay back on a deckchair-like sofa chair in a dark circular room,watching a 3D-like projection of the Universe on a dome-shaped ceiling with Whoopi Goldberg narrating in my ears. I also enjoyed my first official experience with German family life, with cute little kids making gingerbread houses, having paprika-flavoured Quark for breakfast, and drinking some excellent wine till the early hours of morning. It was there that I discovered the fascinating truth that drinking alcohol helps you to speak a foreign language better. Or maybe because if you have alcohol in one hand, you're already one third more German than you were before.

Truth be said, this weekend I pushed my boundaries with the language and surprised myself; instead of speaking in English with the Erasmus students, I was forced to speak German - and I realised that even when you make mistakes, the Germans appreciate your attempt anyways, and it's practice (not simply memorizing vocabulary!) that makes perfect when it comes to language learning. All in all, the weekend was over too soon, and I reluctantly returned to Gelsenkirchen. Indeed, I felt a little sad that it was over, yet I rejoiced with a little revelation; that sometimes, taking a risk gives you returns in areas you never knew existed.

This is the beauty of travelling.

“The world is a book
and those who do not travel
read only one page.”
– St. Augustine

____________________________________________________________________
(Dear Readers, next week we will take a break from travelling and blogging
together, however, the week after I'll be back with some exciting Christmas tales to tell you! Wishing you and your families all the best for the season and see y'all in a fortnight. Auf Wiedersehen!)

References:
- http://www.zoll.de/DE/Der-Zoll/Zollmuseum/Besucherservice/besucherservice_node.html
- http://www.hamburg-tourism.de/sehenswertes/best-of-hamburg/speicherstadt/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Pauli_Landing_Stages

Poland, Part 3: On Statues Made From Salt and Food Without Any

A cold wind is blowing, yet my body is warm, haing already walked for over two hours that day. The air is fresh and I am breathing well, my sinuses open and clear. Yet, I am 135m below the Earth's surface. Welcome to the Wieliczka Salt Mines.

Worked on for around 900 years, there is over 200km of passage and over 2,000 caverns in this underground labyrinth. I was unsure about going since its pretty pricey (compared to other museums in Poland, you also have to pay en extra 10zlotys/ 2.50e for a camera permit if you want to take photo) and also its not so clear how to get there, yet it was worth it in the end. There was plenty to see, and the tour guide spoke English well and she had a great sense of humour so we laughed a lot.

With large statues of saints, kings, and philosophers carved into solid salt crystal, complete with a display of coloured lights and Chopin playing int he background, this was a completely new experience for me.
The salt mine is actually so huge that you may also find an entire church underground, complete with a statue of Pope John Paul II which they put there after he visited the place. If anyone is looking for something unique for your wedding, you can also book your ceremony there, they even have several large halls (complete with salt crystal chandeliers) which would easily fit a reception of 200 people.

We saw also several waxworks displays, gigantic underground caverns several storeys high, and stables where they kept horses underground (the guide told us that once they were there, they never saw daylight again until their deaths). The most beautiful thing I experienced was being in a large cavern which, at first, was completely pitch-black. In the darkness, you start to realise a soft sound, that of water falling. Music starts playing, and lights come on slowly, small yellow and purple and green rays, casting beautiful rainbows over a vast salt lake, which glittered and sparkled as the light danced over it...and the lights were programmed with the timing of the music, so when there was a musical climax, the lights themselves burst into joy and the entire cavern was lit up, and we could see the stone ceiling, though it was high up, glittered too, encrusted with crystals and stalacites.

Definitely worth it. Go there if you're in Poland. Nuff said.

There are many more things to do in Poland (particularly Kraków), for example visit the streets of the old town, Sukiennice (a Renaissance icon, see photo)...but unfortunately, you cannot fit in everything! The last thing I would like to write about: the gastronomic Polish experience...

Polish food is a strange, yet delightful phenomenon. Something which fascinated me was the presence of milk bars, which made me think of the film 'A Clockwork Orange'. Known as 'Bar Mleczny', these little curiosities are remnant from when Poland was a Communist state, serving as a way to provide cheap yet nourishing food to the working population.

Typical Polish food includes pierogi, which are are dumplings made from unleavened dough and filled with just about everything - from spinach, to chicken, to apples and ricotta cheese. My dear friend took me (along with the Australian and another friend I made along the way, photojournalist from Mexico) to a typical Polish restaurant with home-made pierogis which had more than 200 different types of pierogi! They were pretty good, especially the spniach ones, and for dessert I tried pancakes stuffed wih ricotta, and served with some kind of vanilla sauce...it was actually kind of disgusting! The pancake was soaked in oil and cheese had a really strange texture, I was glad I only order half a portion! (yes it is possible to do that in Poland).

The best thing I ate in Poland was fried sheep cheese, served with mashed potatoes and colesaw, and cranberry jam... strange, but delicious! And filling :) Interesting drinks I had was this Yerba Mate tea, which gave us a kick when we were in the mountains, and this light brown beverage served in a glass bottle called Kvass, which translates as 'bread acid', made from fermented bread. The best thing I drank however, and this should interest my German audience, was.. HOT BEER. (it's like Glühwein but they use beer instead of wine!). Basically you get a typical lager beer, add a little sweetened ginger syrup, spices like cinnmon, cloves, and orange rind, and heat it up - you are instantly warmed up even just by the smell! Oh man it was soooo tasty!!

Anyways, dear readers - I hope you all enjoyed Poland :) Tune in next week - where you'll hear about floating Christmas trees, an opera house made from glass, and a street full of sex shops rivalling the Red Light District,

my first official Couchsurfing experience in Hamburg, coming to a blog near you.

Bis dann ;-)



(Blog dedicated with special thanks to my dear friends Justyna and Łukasz, who hosted me during my stay in Poland and made all this possible - missing you both very much!)

Poland, Part 2: From Castles to Concentration Camps

On the Wawel Castle and its Dragon, Kraków

On Sunday I woke up with my muscles aching from the day before, yet I felt great. Excited to wake up to greet the day, a breakfast of freshly made pancakes and stewed apples waited for me. Then, Justyna and I wrapped up warm and set off to the centre of Kraków to explore.

Walking along the Vistula River (which is the longest river in Poland) we enjoyed watching people strolling along its banks, seagulls screaming and diving into the water. A gigantic hot air ballon rose above the buildings, half-hiding in between the folds of a light fog, bathing everything in a mysterious, pastel pink-yellow glow. We made a brief stop at the Manggha Center of Japanese Art and Technology ( http://manggha.pl/ )- a large, low building shaped like a wave and produced by the famous Polish film director Andrzej Wajda in 1995.

The Wawel dragon is a well-known character in Polish folklore as he ate up all the young maidens of the region. He lived in a cave underneath the Wawel Castle, and one day King Krakus promised his daughter´s hand in marriage to whomever slayed the dragon. One day, a cobbler´s appretice stuffed a lamb with sulphur and gave it to the dragon, who became so thirsty that he gulped down half the Vistula river, and then rolled over and died. So, it was a happy ending, as the cobbler´s apprentice married the princess, and the dragon´s cave is now a shop for tourists.

Above, Wawel castle stands, still and quite overlooking the river, with picturesque green ivy climbing up its scarlet bricks. Legend has it that on December 24th, all the deceased kings of Poland gather here to celebrate in an underground chamber. A strange architectural jumble with a variety of styles competeing for attention, the styles include a mix of Renaissance and Gothic (which is like the Koeln cathédral meeting St. John´s ´co-cathedral in Valletta - can you imagine?) but somehow, it works, carrying off a unique sense of peculair beauty. The chapel was surely one I was particularly thrown off by, I had never seen the likes of it before. With marble sculptures bearing the graceful, decorative, curvaceous lines characteristic of the Baroque era, yet housed in the tall, solemn, pointed arched of the Gothic style, combined with painted wood, gold leaf, and plaster crown mouldings, this was an artistic treat for anyone with a cultured eye.

Day 3... "Arbeit Macht Frei"

That morning, I hopped on a train to Oświęcim (Oz-vee-chiym). A small, typically unimpressive Polish town. Several old, ugly, and hopefully derelict buildings dot every corner, and people are walking about the market. Doing their shopping on a Monday like any other. Yet, this small town comes with a big story; it was once the home of the largest of all the concentration camps belonging to Germany.

The camp is split into two parts which you can visit. Following a friend I made on the train (a light-hearted, chatty Australian filmmaker), I first went to Auschwitz I, which consisted of the original camp (and is now the main museum), and then Birkenau (Auschwitz II) which was the extermination camp, opened later in order to ease congestion at the main camp.

I spent all day there, yet still, I cannot describe to you fully the profound effect this place had on me. It was not just the knowledge that, over a million people were murdered there, oh, no. What really got to me was the fact that... the buildings were pretty... orderly, cute red-brick structures, a lush green lawn, people hanging around talking, laughing, taking photos, buying postcards*.... who would ever believe, who would ever imagine - had it not been written on plaques everywhere - that such atrocities were committed there? That less than a hundred years ago, all kinds of actual human beings, real men, women, and children, lived and breathed and squirmed and died there, the ground, this lush green grass that you walk upon, is probably still drinking their blood!

I pictured men lining up, the scarlet walls spattered with shards of skull and bits of brain as the bullets entered their heads, how the women watching from behind the bars must have screamed, like their souls were being ripped out from their bodies, I imagined children starving slowly to their deaths, their skin sticking to their bones, to the insides of their cheeks as though they were trying to imitate a fish sucking in water. But no games of pretend for these children, Hell was their reality. Where the morning greeted you with not warm blankets and mummy´s kisses, but with the saltiness of tears and the warmth of flowing blood.
(*Yes, buying postcards. You can now send your mother a picture saying 'Ich war hier!' with the wrought-iron words "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" in the background.)

I walked into one large room whose walls were covered with photos, side by side, frontal portraits. The room was filled with wire structures in the shape of human beings walking after each other, backs bent. The haunting structures were clothed with prisoner´s uniforms, and the headlessness gave the eerie impression that ghosts were present. I watched the other tourists casually strut about, nonchalantly, popping gum bubbles noisily, and wondered if they knew that the eyes of ghosts were watching them.

Another large room, a very long, rectangular one this time. An attendant forbids me to take photos in this area. The room is dark, dim, and the little light which is present has a strange colour because there is some kind of purple filter on the glass of the windows. One third of the room is taken up by a gigantic display case, with angled yellow light cast on what seems to be piles upon piles of woolly intestines, mostly a dusty colour, a mix of brown and grey, with the occasiocal light streak of whitish-yellow. Completely mystified, I ask my friend what this thing is. He looks at me and shakes his head.

"It's human hair", he says. "Used by the Germans as raw material for the textiles industry... you know, to stuff pillows, make ropes with. About two tonnes of it."

I feel extremely naseous. Even more so, when on the other end of the room, a much smaller case displays a collection of long braids, different colours, blonde and auburn and chestnut brown, cut off from the heads of young girls.

I leave the room... walk away from the building...past the people...run to the toilets....

Sitting with the door closed, and I can do nothing but cry.

REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp#cite_ref-rees2_15-0
http://en.auschwitz.org/m/
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/userstory6306-the-legend-of-the-wawel-dragon-a-polish-traditional-legend.html